Below, please find an email I just sent to the IEEE 802.3
reflector. I believe it is important for the EC to be aware of what is
going on in this area. As you may recall, 802.3 had a number of Calls for
Interest at the Albuquerque meeting. One of the CFIs was on
2.5 Gb/s Ethernet. The straw poll to form a study group at the CFI failed
to gain a simple majority, as did a subsequent motion at the 802.3 closing
plenary.

--Bob Grow

Colleagues:

I have received a number of emails requesting information and
confirmation of certain claims related to a 2.5 Gb/s Ethernet activity
happening within IEEE-SA and the Corporate Advisory Group (CAG). I present
the following as

what has been confirmed with IEEE staff and IEEE 802 leadership.
As background the IEEE-SA has two types of membership, Individual such as those
participating in the IEEE 802.3ah sponsor ballot and Corporate.

1. A group of people are exploring initiating an IEEE standards project
through the IEEE-SA CAG on 2.5 Gb/s Ethernet.

2. As stated in "Operating Procedures for The Corporate Advisory
Group as a Standards Development Sponsor", the "CAG is a committee of
the IEEE-SA Board of Governors (BoG), constituted to provide operational and
strategic planning advice on matters affecting the interests of the IEEE-SA
corporate and organizational members."

3. The CAG can function as a sponsor for IEEE standards projects (as
can other societies within IEEE, like our sponsor the IEEE Computer Society).

4. According to IEEE Staff, the CAG has not received any formal
information or request about this activity. Consequently, the CAG has not
approved a standards project or anything else about this activity.

5. The Chair of the CAG has communicated with the Chair of IEEE 802
that a 2.5 Gb/s activity was being discussed and additionally expressing the
desire for close coordination if a project is initiated. The Chair of the
CAG also enquired about the status of the 2.5Gb/s Call for Interest held in
November.

6. The above communication between the Chair of the CAG and the Chair
of IEEE 802 seems to be central to many of the rumors, misunderstandings or
misinformation that is circulating. Much of this type of information is
what I have been asked to confirm as fact or fiction.

7. Contrary to some rumors, the Chair of IEEE 802 has not blessed this
2.5 Gb/s activity, nor promised that IEEE 802 would find a home for it.
With permission of the Chair of IEEE 802, I am letting you know that he gave
his personal opinion to the Chair of the CAG that executing this project
through sponsorship by the CAG "was not advisable due to conflict with the
802.3 position", but he also requested more information about the CAG and
corporate IEEE-SA participation before offering any formal response to the
request and requested that 802 and 802.3 leadership be involved in
any discussion by the CAG on this potential project. That request has been
honored.

IEEE staff is facilitating communication between IEEE 802 and CAG
leadership to accelerate the flow of valid information. Hopefully, this
will happen early next week.